


In Moments, In Thoughts

by afteriwake



Category: Bleach
Genre: Drabble Collection, Friendship, Gen, Introspection, Karakura Town, Male-Female Friendship, One-Sided Attraction, One-Sided Relationship, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 02:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5521490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes it's in small moments where revelations happens. Sometimes it's in the smallest thoughts where things change. These are a few of those moments and thoughts that changed lives for certain people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Moments, In Thoughts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thiscanbegin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thiscanbegin/gifts).



> This is a collection of older drabbles I had written that had more non-romantic themes to theme in the Bleach fandom that I wanted to put up on AO3.

  
**Changing**   
_Abrari Renji_   


He had learned, the hard way, that a reckless person lost that which was valuable to him. He had lost precious food growing up before he learned that lesson well; he lost his best friend for years because he hadn’t learned it well enough. He had a fiery demeanor, a temper, a chip on his shoulder, things that only cost him more as time wore on.

He didn’t change for anyone other than himself; he didn’t change to please Rukia and make her more receptive to romance, he didn’t change to please his captain and make him proud of his lieutenant; he didn’t change to please Captain Commander and show him what a good soldier he could be. He changed because he was tired of losing all that he held close to him.

So, bit by bit, the fiery demeanor mellowed, the temper didn’t flare up as high or as often, the chip on his shoulder became less, until he was a new man. He was a man who asked for respect, and not only got it but deserved it. He held honor and pride high, but not at the cost of himself. He became the man he wanted to be. Whether this paid off in the end remained to be seen, but for now he liked this man he had become; he was proud of him and he would try hard not to slip back into old habits, and stay on the new path he had set for himself.

  
**As Life Starts To Ebb Away**   
_Kurosaki Ichigo_   


He can feel his life flowing away. It’s peaceful, despite the pain he’s in. Dimly he can hear Nel Tu sobbing over him, and he at least knows that while he died in vain, he didn’t die alone. He wonders if anyone else will get through, have the chance to rescue Inoue. He hopes one of them does, because Inoue deserves better.

As things get numb and it gets harder to think, his thoughts come in pictures, flashes of memory so bright it’s almost like he’s following them home. They go back, from his entrance to Hueco Mundo to before, and then earlier, and then earlier, until he’s back to his childhood. He sees his mother, not as a poster on the wall but as a beacon of warmth, reaching out her hand for him.

And then she’s leaving, fading away, and he feels himself being pulled back. He’s scared, doesn’t know what the hell is going on, but he can feel injuries mending, bleeding stopping, pain erasing. He realizes that it’s Inoue doing this, bringing him back from the depths of death, and while part of him is glad part of him wants to go back, to follow his mother wherever she may lead.

But in the end he knows it’s not his time, not if Inoue has any say, and it’s best to come back and fight to keep her safe, take her home, and set things right. And with that in mind, he comes back to the world, ready to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

  
**Shattered**   
_Hinamori Momo_   


He haunts her.

Haunts her days, with the specter of his captaincy. She's left to fill the void, once she's healed. No one else wants the captain position. She hears the rumors, about him, about this curse her division has, about her. She soldiers on, determined face to the world, but inside she's broken, shattered into a million pieces. It's all she can do to put the brave face on, but she misses him, misses the way her division was run, so smoothly, so perfectly.

He haunts her nights, to the point where she cries every night, after she wakes up, thinking of him. She loved him, oh, how she loved him. Worshiped him. Adored him. And so she lives in denial, that it really wasn't her wonderful captain who impaled her on his sword. She has a fantasy constructed, how it was a trick of light, of Gin fooling her. Anything but the truth. Because the truth would crush the shattered pieces of her soul to powder, and it would float off on the wind, never to be seen again.

It takes all of her strength to get through the day. She feels lost, hopeless, and now abandoned, since Shiro-chan and Rangiku-san have gone to the world of the living. And so when she sees him, she breaks down. She'd tried to hold on for so long, and then she saw Hitsugaya and the dam just burst, and everything was swept away: her sense of pride, or propriety, and some people later said her sanity.

It only after that, long after that incident, that she begins to deal with the truth. Her wonderful captain was a monster. He lied and he killed and he stole bits of her and crushed them down and didn't care. He left her a shell, a mere specter of herself for so long. And only then does she know she has to face him again, or she'll never be freed from his influence. Now, she's strong again. She can fight him. And she can win, help all of them win, or die trying. She's ready now.

  
**New Base Of Operations**   
_Urahara Kisuke_   


Karakura Town a hundred years before was a different sight. No high rise buildings, no paved roads. There were fewer buildings, and the town was much smaller. But in a way, it reminded Urahara of home, of the Soul Society he grew up in, and not the polished parts of Seirieiti that he had been near for the hundred years and more before that.

He had set his pack down on the ground and looked at his companion. Aizen, the bastard...he had gotten away with it. He had destroyed all those lives, turned them in hybrid monsters, and now he was left to deal with it as best he could. But Tessai had come, and Yoruichi would soon follow. With his loyal friends, he could get to work, could find a way to protect those in the world of the living that Aizen might try and attack at some later point.

He had knelt down, touched his fingertips to the ground. For some reason, dirt on the living world felt different from dirt in Soul Society, though he supposed it should have felt the same because dirt is dirt everywhere. But he turned and looked at Tessai, and nodded. Yes, Karakura Town would be the perfect place to begin the work he knew would be needed at some point in the future. It felt different here, but special. Very special indeed.

  
**Now A Man**   
_Matsumoto Rangiku_   


She didn't know when her feelings had begun to change. She had, from the moment she had met him when he was a young child, adopted the “cool big sister” persona around him, where he was the perpetually grouchy little brother. Because for all intents and purposes, that's what he was. Even when he became a Captain, and made her his Lieutenant, she would never see him as anything more than someone she'd regard with affection.

But once Gin's revelations set her free, she stopped dwelling on the past and focused on the future. She stopped drinking as much, dressed a tad bit more modestly, stopped slacking off more. She became responsible, and found she enjoyed the change and the things it brought. The attention was wonderful, and she could appreciate it more now that she wasn't in a sake-induced haze.

Eventually she moved on, found a fulfilling relationship with someone and made plans. It was the day that she announced her engagement to her Captain that it hit her: he was no longer a grumpy little boy. He was a grown man, hardened by battle and great loss. He was a man with a man's problems. And though she felt happy when her Captain gave her a guarded hug and a gruff congratulations, she was sad because she knew the chance was very good that her now grown-up Captain would never have her happiness so long as he clung to his past. And she vowed she would do everything in her power to make that happen.

  
**Moonlit Savior**   
_Ishida Uryuu_   


It's in the moonlight that he sees her again. He'd never expected to come back to Soul Society. Never wanted to, to be frank. And certainly he didn't want to spend his afterlife there. That was why he'd moved to the United States, in the hopes that leaving Japan far behind would be enough. It was leaving memories he didn't want to think about, about the losses of friends and family and innocence that drove him clear across the world.

But his father had died, and back he came, even though he didn't want to. And he died in Japan. It was almost as if Soul Society had dragged him back, and it was kicking and screaming. He had no hope of finding Orihime or Chad there, and the minute that bastard Mayuri had heard he was there then he was captured, and he knew it was going to be the end of him.

But one night, as the moonlight filtered through the window in the room, she came. Her face was expressionless, as it always was and always would be, and she said nothing. But she had keys, and quickly, quietly unlocked the door. Held it open and waited, in fact. And so he got up and walked out to freedom.

He saw Chad and Orihime outside, in black shinigami robes, and with one glance back he saw his savior was framed in the doorway, moonlight on her face, and he knew she was going to get in so much trouble, but he was grateful anyway. As his friends pulled him away, telling him that Captain Yamamoto was going to take care of things, he looked back one last time and saw she was gone, and he wistfully wished he could go back and thank her, but knew that would never happen.


End file.
